Provision of available service information for a network prior to a network connection

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure describe technologies for providing and receiving available service information for a network, prior to a connection to the network via an access point. An access point determines a list of available services on a network associated with the access point. The list of available services is stored in a memory of the access point. The access point provides the list of available services to an endpoint device in a vendor specific information element prior to an establishment of a wireless connection between the access point and the endpoint device.

That which is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for an access point to provide a list of available services on a wireless network to an endpoint device, the method comprising:
 determining, by the access point, the list of available services on the wireless network;   storing the list of available services in a memory of the access point; and   providing, by the access point, one or more of the list of available services to the endpoint device in a vendor specific information element of a wireless communication from the access point to the endpoint device, prior to an establishment by the access point of a wireless connection of the endpoint device to the wireless network.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the list of available services is configurable. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein determining, by the access point, the list of available services on the wireless network comprises using a discovery protocol to determine the list of available services on the wireless network. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising periodically refreshing the list of available services stored in the memory of the access point. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication from the access point to the endpoint device comprises a beacon. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising wirelessly receiving, at the access point, a probe request from the endpoint device, and wherein the wireless communication from the access point to the endpoint device comprises a probe response to the endpoint device. 
     
     
         7 . A method for providing cached available service information from an access point for a wireless network to an endpoint device, the method comprising:
 receiving available service information from an advertisement server;   caching, by the access point, the available service information received from the advertisement server, wherein the cached available service information comprises a list of one or more services available on the wireless network; and   providing, by the access point, at least a portion of the cached available service information to the endpoint device prior to an establishment by the access point of a wireless connection of the endpoint device to the wireless network.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the step of caching further comprises periodically refreshing the cached available service information. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the step of caching further comprises determining the cached available service information over a predetermined time period. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising wirelessly receiving, in the access point, a plurality of Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) requests from the endpoint device;
 wherein the step of providing further comprises wirelessly sending, by the access point, a plurality of GAS responses to the endpoint device, responsive to the plurality of GAS requests.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the step of caching further comprises:
 sending, by the access point, a plurality of query requests to the advertisement server;   receiving, by the access point, a plurality of query responses from the advertisement server, responsive to the plurality of query requests; and   caching the available service information based on the plurality of query responses.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 in the access point, using Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP) to wirelessly receive the GAS requests and for the wirelessly sending the GAS responses, wherein the GAS requests and the GAS responses each comprise at least one ANQP element; and   in the access point, using ANQP for the sending of the query requests and for the receiving of the query responses, wherein the query requests and the query responses each comprise at least one ANQP element.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising providing network optimization by using the cached available service information to reduce a number of query requests and query responses exchanged between the access point and the advertisement server. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 7 , the providing further comprising wirelessly sending, by the access point, a Generic Advertisement Service (GAS) response to the endpoint device comprising at least a portion of the cached available service information. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , the method further comprising wirelessly receiving, in the access point, a GAS request from the endpoint device, wherein the step of wirelessly sending further comprises wirelessly sending, by the access point, the GAS response to the endpoint device responsively to the GAS request, the GAS response comprising at least a responsive portion of the cached available service information. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , the method further comprising using Access Network Query Protocol (ANQP), in the access point, for the wirelessly receiving the GAS request and for the wirelessly sending the GAS response, and wherein the GAS response comprises an ANQP element requested by the endpoint device in the GAS request. 
     
     
         17 . A method for discovering available service information in an endpoint device configured to be communicatively coupled to a wireless network via an access point of the wireless network, the method comprising:
 detecting, by the endpoint device, the access point of the wireless network;   wirelessly receiving, in the endpoint device, a vendor specific information element from the access point prior to an establishment of a wireless connection of the endpoint device to the wireless network via the access point; and   determining available service information, by the endpoint device, using the vendor specific information element received from the access point prior to the establishment of the wireless connection of the endpoint device to the wireless network via the access point, wherein the available service information comprises a list of one or more services available on the wireless network.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein receiving the vendor specific information element further comprises wirelessly receiving, in the endpoint device, a beacon from the access point comprising the vendor specific information element, wherein the vendor specific information element comprises the available service information. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising wirelessly sending, by the endpoint device, a probe request to the access point. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising wirelessly receiving, in the endpoint device, a probe response from the access point, wherein the probe response is responsive to the probe request sent to the access point, and wherein the probe response comprises the vendor specific information element for determining the available service information provided in response to the probe request.